Suspense in the Red Room



Suspense in the Red Room

Introduction

In the Red Room, description of setting is used to great effect. Even the title creates suspense, as the reader wonders what the room is, and why it is red. This may intrigue them and encourage them to read the story. At the beginning, H.G Wells describes the housekeeper's room.

Discussion

He uses description which tells the reader that there is something odd about the house. Once example of this is; "the queer old mirror at the end of the room". The word queer means strange, and so this unnerves the reader, and helps build tension, as they wonder if the mirror is of any significance. Antique mirrors are often used in gothic stories because they fit with the old-fashioned architecture of the time, and are associated with bad luck. Mirrors also reflect shadows in a dark room, to create a spooky atmosphere and help the reader imagine the scene. Reference to shadow is also used to describe this room. For example, "a monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall". This quote frightens the reader, by making the simple image of an elderly man pouring a beer into something quite frightening and eerie. This builds suspense, as it symbolises the distortion of reality, and provokes the imagination of the reader, as they wonder what is to come.

The characters in this particular room at the start of the play also add to the spooky setting. The writer describes them in some detail, but never reveals their names, instead using repetition of their descriptions to label them by, for example, "the man with the withered arm", and "the old woman". The writer's use of repetition, and the uncertainty about the identities of these characters helps to create suspense, as the reader wonders who they are, and what part they will play in the story H.G Wells chooses to focus a lot on the elderly trio's eyes when describing them. For example, he writes, "I caught a momentary glimpse of his eyes, small and bright and inflamed", and, "The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open". These descriptions work very effectively, as they unnerve the reader, and imply that perhaps these characters . have seen more than they are letting on. This also creates suspense, because the reader then wonders what they have seen, and why it has frightened them so much. At the end of the story we learn that, in fact, none of these people have actually entered the haunted room and seen the ghost. We know this because it says; "we, who have lived here all our lives, have never dared set eyes upon it". However at that particular point in the story, the writer chooses not to reveal this, so as to build suspense and allow the reader to form their own opinions and guesses as to what is going to happen.

On the main character's way to The Red Room, description of the ...